DEVON County Council's highways teams will be working around the clock again this evening and will be extending their efforts to keep the county's roads clear.

DEVON County Council's highways teams will be working around the clock again this evening and will be extending their efforts to keep the county's roads clear.Gritters are already out and about treating 1,650 miles on the County's salting network and the County Council's "white out" fleet are on high alert and are prepared to be mobilised overnight if ploughs are needed to clear roads.Freezing temperatures combined with snow and wintry showers mean that all of the county's 48 salting routes, 20 per cent of Devon's road network, will be treated. Road temperatures have barely got above zero Celsius today and they are expected to drop to as low as -4.6 in Yarcombe in East Devon overnight.Gritters headed out at 2:45pm this afternoon with 360 tonnes of salt for the salting network. They will then treat secondary routes to try and salt roads into major hamlets. A repeat coverage of the main network will be carried out at midnight across the county, except in South Devon where it will be at 3am. A further inspection will then be carried out at 4am tomorrow morning and right the way through to the rush hour to see if further action is needed.Councillor Margaret Rogers, Devon County Council's executive member for the environment, said: "Our highways teams are being kept busy by the current cold spell, already surpassing the amount of call outs and salt used for the whole of last winter, and I would like to thank them for their efforts and dedication. They are again preparing for heavy snow and are currently working to ensure the county's road network is clear, but drivers must never assume that a road has been salted.